NATURAL AWAKENINGS

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Thursday, November 12, 2015

It has really gotten strange in this
world. You can't say anything anymore without it being taken out of
context, or amplified well beyond the intent of this writer. My
feeling about all of this has less to do with the pressures and
uncertainties of modern life and ever so much more to do with
unavoidable changes coming upon us and being some thing(s) we are not
intrinsically disposed to accommodating. We fear and resist change at
most points and we are not open to accepting this. I know this to be
true because it is true of me. As much as I seek change on a daily
basis, there are parts of my subconscious that are opposed. Beneath
the surface of our being is a huge sea of impulses and predilections
of which most of us are only dimly aware. Anyone who has studied the
effect of the mysterious ID and all those other misdiagnosed terms
that are in the common parlance, knows that there is conditioning and
there is also the unfortunate incontinence of the subconscious (how's
that for a snappy definition?) as it breaks through thin barriers and
the subterranean customs checkpoints of our inner self. Not a day goes
by when we don't hear about some poor soul who did something awful or
awfully embarrassing that they would never have done if they had been
in their right mind at the time. These days, far too many of us are
not in our right minds because the world we live in is dangerously
out of balance and we have adjusted to this and continued to adjust
to it, until we have adjusted ourselves into a synchronicity with the
dangerous imbalance of the world we inhabit.

It is due to an almost unnoticeable,
incremental press toward chaos that we find ourselves increasingly
separated from both ourselves and each other. It has also come to
where anything we say to one another, no matter how innocuous and
well meaning, can be taken for something else, something other than
what we intended and we are left at a loss to understand how and why
this happened.

I come here most days, although you may
not see the results every day, trying my best to speak from the heart
with all of the sincerity and passion that I am capable of. This is
the truth of me and I do my damnedest to be and do just that. I think
'most people' who come here believe this and I also believe this
about most of the people who come here. I often yearn with a great
hunger to be in a proximity where I can interact with the majority of
you. Alas... we are separated by great distance in many cases and
such is not to be. This is the point and purpose of the work that
takes place here because it is only in virtual space that one can
accomplish such a thing. Many times I have wished to see more of the
wonderful people I met in London when I went there to speak at that
conference. I only had the day and that was that. The river of life
flowed onward and around the bend. The days pass, all too quickly it
seems and I grow ever closer to my exit point, hoping that as I go I
can do more good than harm by an ever larger percentage. I seek with
a greater and greater intensity, to throw off the shackles of my
blindness, ignorance and intolerance. There is within each of us (for
the most part) such a great amount of programming. Some of that
programming is from other lives. It is not an easy thing to shake but
we go at it with a will, even though Lao Tzu, says, “let life ripen
and fall, will is not the way at all.” (grin). It can get
confusing; to do or not to do. To try or not try. Which is it? It
seems that it is none of them all the time and some of them some of
the time and being capable of flexibility and finesse is the key. It
seems this can only be made possible by a clear and open channel to
the intuition because although we certainly do not know in any
comprehensive sense, our creator knows everything in every sense.

What does this tell us? It tells us
that the key is to come into an ever more deep and continuous
communication with our higher self. The key is to be transported by
grace, or faith, or relentless industry; good works, a ceaseless
meditative focus... whatever it takes... to come into a state of
utter reliance on the ineffable and everything that happens to us in
this life is directed into bringing us to this point, IF we are so
inclined in the first place because... in times of the apocalypse, we
are all being brought to the direct resolution of what we are in the
totality of our being. Going up? Going down? Going sideways? We are
all going in the direction of our hearts deepest intentions, even
when we are woefully unaware of what that is. For some of us,
regardless of our rough state, we are being led on the proper course
due to grace. At some point we impressed the ineffable with something
and the ineffable has never forgotten. We forget of course but the
ineffable does not.

We have to shake the persistent
anthropomorphism that plagues our existence. We consistently mistake
the mind and intentions of the almighty with our own. We believe that
the ineffable thinks and judges like we do. We believe the ineffable
is just as unforgiving as we are, just as petty and impatient. This
is simply not true. The truth is that the ineffable loves us more
than we are capable of loving the ineffable back. The ineffable
yearns for reunion with us far beyond our own yearning. In all
things, the ineffable pursues us with a greater fervor than we are
capable of and it is this that we are meant to surrender to, the
divine impetus for resonance with the ineffable.

Guru Bawa once said that he was like a
fisherman and we were all runaway fish (I am paraphrasing) snapping
at every brightly colored thing and that he had set his hooks for us
and once the hooks were embedded in our mouths we were caught and it
didn't matter how frantically and powerfully we sought to swim away
in the direction of our pedestrian pursuits, we were hooked and
slowly, or quickly, depending on his mysterious purpose, as an agent
of the ineffable, he will reel us in. He was speaking in that
luminous intensity of his and I was fixed on everything he was saying
and all of a sudden, I caught myself (no doubt he was responsible for
this) and there I was with my mouth wide open just as if there were a
hook in it and I was being irresistibly pulled forward toward him. It
was, is, an unforgettable moment and in the moment of my discovery of
what was taking place I realized that it had been going on for some
time.

Later, down the road, when I was facing
a sentence of life imprisonment on Maui, my friend Michael Green went
to Bawa and told him about my situation. I should also point out that
in my situation NO ONE had ever beaten such charges before. It was a
slam dunk and yet I, with no money and a court appointed lawyer did
just that. At the time, Bawa said to Michael, “Oh, don't worry,
he'll be alright. He has just chosen another path.” AND... so it
was. This is one of the beauties about a great master like Bawa. He
understood that not all of us must be compelled to be forcibly
shuttled on to a particular path. As we often maintain here, there
are many paths up the mountain but once you have reached the top you
can see all the ways down. Bawa once referred to himself as a traffic
cop who stands at the crossroads of existence and who waves people in
the various directions that their destiny is meant to go. “You go
this way. You go that way.” etc.

I wish I had appreciated him more when
he was materially with us. I was so reckless at the time. I thought I
wanted to be performing recording artist. I distinctly remember
standing in my apartment back in 1976 in Philadelphia and saying to
myself, “I've got to rock and roll.” It was as if I were at a
crossroads; whether to immerse myself in the day to day of the
fellowship there or to follow my dream, which was not all that well
formed and which displayed a great ignorance of the music industry
and the mindset of those who run it. All I got as a result was a
great deal of pain and suffering and these days my music is a side
issue affair going nowhere at the same speed as the rest of me
(grin). Well... I don't know that actually. Probably a lot more than
I am aware of is going on and only faith, certitude and determination
will take me through it all.

I told myself before I got here that I
would give myself a year to see what was what here for me and I have
done this and like some kind of strange clockwork, I find that
circumstances have put me in a position to vacate where I am, exactly
one year after arriving. I did nothing to bring it about. It happened
completely independent of me. If anything I was as peaceful and
diplomatic as possible but... when the ineffable has plans it is
better that one does not have plans of their own. I suspect it is
possible I could be almost anywhere after the New Year. Somehow the
means to be wherever that is to be will materialize. I am confident
of this, just as I am confident I will not be rendered homeless and
destitute. The ineffable loves me as much as anyone and everything in
this life is created to bring me, or any of us, into an awareness of
this. It is fascinating to see to what a degree the ineffable micro
manages our lives if we are cooperatively disposed toward it.

I want to say in closing that although
I will occasionally say things that are not understood as I intended
them to be or which offend some, it is never my intention to make
such a thing happen but these things become unavoidable when dealing
with a wide readership, which incorporates so many different
perspectives and states of mind that can vary from moment to moment.
It's all timing ultimately. Shave a few seconds, or an hour, or a
day, here and there and the whole dynamic can change. Stop on your
way somewhere and everything is altered to a lesser or greater
degree. This is why a consistency of heart and mind is so important.
Even if everything around you is changing, the power within is always
greater than the appearances without. It might take some time to get
to where this is understood and employed but... we have forever.

Life can be very mysterious. It is
happening at so many levels and all of our thoughts and words and
actions are like the ripples caused by a stone thrown into a lake.
These ripples reach distant shores and they interact with other
ripples and a large complexity comes out of all this interplay
between the countless numbers of us. Deep within the heart of it all
is a profound simplicity and this is the most difficult of it all to
grasp and it is achieved by a letting go of everything superficial
and a consistent focusing upon the one who lies within the deepest
center of our being. Love and devotion; don't leave home without
them.

20
comments:

Ray B.
said...

I just wanted to post this, as it was beautiful!

I have seen many rainbows, but this was unusual. I was driving roughly due north, and the sky was overcast and slightly misty. A 'soft' rainbow segment appeared right in front of my vision! It slowly widened to a full - but very low - arc, again with this 'soft', almost-transparent look against the mottled clouds. Very ethereal. What a feast, and good for the soul...

(I know what you meant, but...) Sorry, but I just have to say it: *grin*"Do, or Do Not. There is no try." (Yoda-ism)---Vis: "I wish I had appreciated him [Guru Bawa] more when he was materially with us."

Vis, do you ever experience him as 'popping in' or in various 'visits' during meditations, etc.? (Good story, BTW.)---Vis: "It was as if I were at a crossroads; whether to immerse myself in the day to day of the fellowship there or to follow my dream..."

It sounds (to my ears) a lot like the crossroads of Gautama Buddha: Whether to become a warrior and king, or to follow a spiritual path. It cost him, too. One story which I read said that he was told his father's kingdom was finally defeated by neighboring kingdoms, and the ruling clan was crushed to death by elephants. We all have consequences of paths not taken...

(I believe that - had the ineffable really wanted you to stay with the fellowship - all kinds of things would have happened (from subtle to major) to urge/jostle/thwack you back into a needed direction. At least, that's how it happens with me...)---Vis: "I told myself before I got here that I would give myself a year to see what was what here for me..."

It may be that you had some longing for the islands or the lifestyle or the people that needed to be satisfied before moving on. My family had a couple of weeks vacation at the ocean at Fenwick Island, Delaware, when I was a youngster. I remember it as one of the best times of my life. In my early thirties, I was drawn back there just to visit. It was like a 'completion' time - to give gratitude for that time (as an adult), reflect on it, and gather it up & put it in my soul. Haven't been back since, and no real 'pull' to do so...

(In situations like what you are 'facing', I have found it rewarding to repeat to Higher Self, "Highest intentions" and "Pleasure side, if for the highest good." "Highest intentions" reaffirms that I wish to override all my day-to-day ego fantasies. "Pleasure side" [as opposed to pain side] reaffirms that - where there is an option - I prefer to travel the path that has the most joy, love, etc., in it rather than the most anger, fear, sadness, etc. I have found that these brief 'reminders' to Higher Self really make a difference, especially when setting out one a new path. We all have a certain degree of personal freedom, and I like to 'stack the deck' where possible. *half grin*)

Vis, I've sort of understood the consciousness-bending effect of the mundane, how gradually it turns us...but you explained it very simply and elegantly. "...until we have adjusted ourselves into a synchronicity with the dangerous imbalance of the world we inhabit." The crazy koyannisquatsi world.And the increasing difficulty of communication we all have...some of that is self-centeredness, a lack of 'attention', but a lot due to the Babel effect...where we attach separate, very individualistic meanings to the very same words and phrases - not different languages as we are told the bible story means."Flexibility and finesse"...I am in great need of that (because me, unfortunately not ever being graceful or a dancer) as I try to navigate through the current world uncertainty. Anyway Les, one paragraph after another of bliss, and a true communication. Thanks.

And Ray B. my friend, the "rainbow". My 5 year old granddaughter told me her greatest wish was to see a rainbow. Can you imagine not having seen one? And what does she get? Trident missiles arcing in the evening skies over Los Angeles.Oh, poor misguided world.How near the kingdom of heaven is, and how far.-beggar

"I often yearn with a great hunger to be in a proximity where I can interact with the majority of you. Alas... we are separated by great distance..."

Same here. I have only one local, personal friend with whom I can discuss important matters. Her husband just retired and the two of them are about to set out in their camper, wandering the American southwest. First thought: “NO – I do not want to face the apocalypse alone – and furthermore it is likely to be much more dangerous there than here.” But then it occurs to me that maybe we are dispersed for a reason…

“All I got as a result was a great deal of pain and suffering…”

Same here. I’m sure my acquaintances from university days conclude that I missed the bus to the big party. And they are quite right. But I’ve come to understand that I’m not here to party, but to evolve, and a party’s not a good place to concentrate. And in a way analogous to earning a degree or two from a university, such growth has associated costs, not only monetary, but also a sacrifice of time and energy. I would not trade places…

Vis,the ripples of time only disturb the surface, beneath, in the deep, is the heart of it all in it's "profound simplicity and this is the most difficult of it all to grasp" .

There incubates the human drama. Where the artists musings drift like vapors in the evening time, telling stories and recording the transitions from earth to sky.

"Running On Empty"Looking out at the road rushing under my wheelsLooking back at the years gone by like so many summer fieldsIn sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-o-oneI don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running onGotta do what you can just to keep your love aliveTrying not to confuse it with what you do to surviveIn sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my ownI don't know when that road turned onto the road I'm onEveryone I know, everywhere I goPeople need some reason to believeI don't know about anyone but meIf it takes all night, that'll be all rightIf I can get you to smile before I leave

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheelsI don't know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feelsI look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me throughLooking into their eyes I see them running too"JACKSON BROWNE

And so we are transported by wind, and drain, and sun, and "grace, or faith, or relentless industry; good works, a ceaseless meditative focus... whatever it takes... to come into a state of utter reliance on the ineffable and everything that happens to us in this life is directed into bringing us to this point, IF we are so inclined in the first place because... in times of the apocalypse, we are all being brought to the direct resolution of what we are in the totality of our being."---amen

a whole chapter on Freudian movement and segued into the New Left and academic precursors to the Perpetual Hamster Roller Wheel Down the Dante Highway to Hell of IDiocracy. most enlightening about the darkening.Atzmon must have been greatly influenced by this author. calls they that live a "group evolutionary strategy".not a link, a hook and a line.https://duckduckgo.com/?q=culture+of+critique+kevin+macdonald+filetype%3Apdf

speaking of they live, new book by Wayne B of 'it's not the law' that now includes 'the them'. available as non Amazonian pdf.http://itsnotthelaw.com/newbook.htm

The separation is difficult to accept and fathom and might likely be a feature of Babel 2.0, or how ever many versions of this there might have been in the past going forth. Language and ideas are being revised at such a pace now, i'm not sure anyone can keep up with it and it is contributing to an overall imbalance creeping around the edges of chaos, or so it seems to me. Even though they speak the same language, people are interpreting things more differently now. Maybe the vibrations of sounds, tones and the general timbre of those are now regularly hastened or impeded according to some outlaying force behind them aside from the generally known manipulations of such things. In any case, it seems to be increasing in a way that disturbs an already unstable environment further.

I guess i just repeated what LV already said, but meant to insinuate a more suspect reason, maybe what also could be a part of the dialogue as perhaps a scientific one, such as radio and microwave and satellite frequencies which are so ubiquitous and pernicious among us in these days as comprising many unintended or even intended effects upon living systems, and in accordance to spiritual or etheric systems ending up in such disturbances right along with material ones.

You'd think that the wurlder gubermint would make haste to take advantage of such a situation to corral all the languages that are currently spoken and advocate for a single language overall, instead of trying to reform their latest version of Babel and farting around with them all individually first, while they fuck around with religion and warfare as the main tools of control and keep. I suppose they must be doing it already but just leaving that little secret a secret, so as not to offend anyone. Ha. ha.

People talk too much anyway. They also DO too much.

It's okay tho, you have to look at what's in front of you and seek to simplify the thing to make it clear, while in the the midst of complication and confusion; like: "Deep within the heart of it all is a profound simplicity and this is the most difficult of it all to grasp and it is achieved by a letting go of everything superficial and a consistent focusing upon the one who lies within the deepest center of our being." –LV

Within that frame, for me, lies a wish for a new and simpler outlook on life as educated and sublime with the guidance of our eneffible -inside and out- to greater freedom from uneducated overt forces like material avarice and acquisition.

Visible, this is Victor from San Jose. I'm not really in San Jose, more toward Merced but that is unimportant. I live in a hidden glade and you are much welcome at my house. I got my own place and you got yours too, here, if you want. I'll even come there and get you. I've never forgotten what you did for me when I visited in Italy. Seriously, some parts of Cali are not bad. It really depends on where you are. It's a lot easier to travel the country when you are in it than when you still have to get there crossing an ocean.

Victor; as you might recall. You were living outside Albuquerque the last I heard from you which was around 2010 and though I wrote you a couple of times to see how you were, I never heard back. I appreciate your offer but I've had all kinds of problems with that kind of thing in the past. What I can say is that I am glad to hear that you are doing well.

It's hard to do it with just three, given how I feel about Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Lennon and McCartney and Harrison and Donovan; not to mention John Fogarty and Jefferson Airplane and there are more, of course but Jackson is still in the top three because both the ineffable and brotherhood and redemption flow through his songs. Lives in the Balance comes to mind. Damn! I almost left out his best friend, Warren Zevon. He's up there in my estimation and appreciation too. I left a good handful out.

"Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Beverly Cope (née Simmons) and William Zevon. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and his original surname was Zivotovsky. William was a bookie who handled volume bets and dice games for notorious Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen.[1] William worked for years in Cohen's Combination, where he was known as Stumpy Zevon, and was best man at Cohen's first marriage.[2] Warren's mother was from a Mormon family and was of English descent."

Looks like Warren had all the right connections to become a big music star...

Dear Visible, may you be blessed with all the grace and power the One behind all things has reserved for you. This written in gratitude to you for offering words which express those things I absolutely need to be reminded of.

Thank you for mentioning 'The Way to the Kingdom' in one of your posts not long ago. I am now immersed in it and other works by the same author. May we all be reminded a thousand times a day of the Self who resides within so that we may the sooner come to realization of Him.